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China

Chinese girl, abandoned weeks after birth, lives in hope of discovering parent’s fate

Yang Xiuxia’s parents left her with a neighbour as a newborn when they had to return to their hometown in Sichuan – just days before it was wiped off the face of the earth

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Nine-year-old Yang Xiuxia, sells vegetables after school in Dongguan. The notes on her store appeal for contact from her parents who left her as a newborn. Photo: Handout
Catherine Wong

A nine-year-old girl in southern China has sold vegetables on the street for five years as a way to draw attention in finding her parents who deserted her while she was an infant, a newspaper reported.

When she was just one month old in 2008, Yang Xiuxia’s parents left her in the care of their neighbour Huang Mengyi, who is now over 70, the Nanfang Daily reported on Saturday.

Xiuxia shares dinner with Huang Mengyi, now in her 70s, a neighbour who has cared for the girl all her life. Photo: Handout
Xiuxia shares dinner with Huang Mengyi, now in her 70s, a neighbour who has cared for the girl all her life. Photo: Handout
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Every day after school, for the past five years, Xiuxia has been selling vegetables at a local market in Dongguan, Guangdong province, as a way to make a living but also in the hope that she would one day attract the attention of her birth parents.

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“Dear Mum and Dad, how are you? You left me with an old lady when I was sick in 2008. Now I am well. Please take me home,” Xiuxia wrote on a card beside her stall.

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